Status: Read from May 23 to 27, 2015 — I own a copy {Courtesy the publisher}

My Thoughts:

This title has been on my ‘to read’ list for eons. First published in 2011 this reprint coincides with the launch of CW’s new television series, iZombie. There is some debate as to the source of producer, Rob Thomas’s inspiration – there are vague similarities between the show and this novel, but Thomas claims the show is a loose adaption of the Vertigo comic book series of the same name (beginning with Dead to the World).

My Life as a White Trash Zombie is the first book in a series featuring Angel Crawford, an unemployed, high school dropout with a pill habit and a criminal record, who wakes up in the ER after an overdose she doesn’t remember taking. Confused, but accepting the scenario, she is further puzzled when she receives a letter notifying her that a job is waiting for her at the morgue, intimating that failing to follow through will result in her going to jail. Despite her reservations Angel reports for duty and soon discovers that whoever anonymously secured her the job has in fact saved her life, or at least her afterlife, because Angel is now a zombie, and needs to consume brains to avoid rotting away.

A zombie is an unlikely heroine, especially one with Angel’s ‘white-trash’ background, but Rowland has created a surprisingly likeable protagonist. Forced to figure out the rules for her new afterlife on her own, the character growth is really surprising, involving not only staying ‘alive’ but also getting sober and dealing with her alcoholic father and her ‘asstard’ boyfriend.

The mystery reveals itself when headless bodies begin turning up and Angel begins to suspect a rogue zombie is murdering the populace to feed, until she learns the dead were also zombies. Angel needs to figure out who is hunting zombies before she becomes the next victim. The answers to Angels’ questions are fairly predictable, including who made her a zombie, but I enjoyed it anyway.

My Life as a White Trash Zombie is a quick, fun read offering plenty of snarky humour, as well as some gross descriptions of bodies that might turn the stomach of the squeamish, a touch of romance, mystery and action.